located in kibbutz Maayan Baruch
includes 8000 hand axes found in the area of the kibbutz in the Hulla valley by Amnon Assaf.
also include the skeleton of a woman and a dog buried together, this is the oldest dog to be found in the world.

starts in 1946 when a group of young high school graduates from Tel Aviv reaches Kibbutz Kfar Giladi during their service in the Palmach. One of the jobs required of them was the removal of rocks and stones from the lands to be used for agriculture. This section of land was named Hamara. Among the rocks and stones, the youth began to discover hand axes made of flint and were identified as tools around 200,000 years old.

Amno Assaf one of the men in the Palmach unit was particularly interested in the artifacts, and began collecting them in crates under his army cot.In March of 1947, the Palmach unit was among other groups that founded Kibbutz Maayan Baruch. The kibbutz is situated near the grounds of Hamara. Whenever he was able to find the time, Assaf would search the surrounding fields for more prehistoric artifacts. There were days that he was able to find dozens of hand axes a day. To this day, in the 300 dunam area considered to be what was once Hamara, around 8,000 artifacts have been discovered.

Word of Assaf’s collection spread quickly in the professional archeological world both in Israel and internationally. Archeologist started flocking to Maayan Baruch to see and study the enormous collection of artifacts. Assaf started to study to expand his knowledge of prehistory. He joined archeological digs arranged by researchers both from Israel and nations around the world. Amnon continued to discover pre-historical artifacts in these digs.

As a result of the interest the collection created in the professional world Assaf started a small museum in one of the wooden huts on the kibbutz. Many years later the collection was moved to a larger building built specially for the purpose of the Museum of Prehistory.

Through the years, Assaf has expanded his collection, which now includes archeological artifacts removed from ancient burial caves found in and around Kibbutz Maayan Baruch. These are from the Bronze, Byzantine and Roman Ages. The museum also includes an extensive collection of artifacts collected from different peoples and tribes around the world. These tools, weapons and instruments help one learn and better understand the life of the pre-historic man.